Street LAB: musical live art and performing publics

“So VERY excited… The whole city was alive that week and encountering the street art made that very real for me.”

We had a great time during Art Week Exeter 2017 co-producing Street LAB with Exeter Phoenix and partners Music in Devon Initiative. Bristol based duo Asthma (Alice Human and Hannah Sullivan) created an anarchic feel outside Central Station and on the High Street with their post-punk aesthetic and loud electric instruments. Alistair Gentry managed to learn how to play a (very small) piano with the help of the public, and Princessin Hans dispensed musical medicine to Exeter residents after a very thorough and nuanced consultation process.

“Unusual, unexpected, completely off-script of the daily experience. So generous of the performers and organisers.”

The pop-up pianos outside Exeter Libary, Guildhall Shopping and on Piazza Terracina brought a “magical, atmospheric” feeling to the city, with members of the public sharing their music in a “fun, social and imaginative” interruption to daily life. The pop-up pianos will continue in sites across the city for the rest of the summer featuring in Exeter Street Arts Festival on 26th August.